1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a casino game, and more particularly to a casino game method and apparatus that utilizes falling coins to determine the outcome of the game and payouts to the player are made from coins displayed in the playing field of the game.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The game of the present invention has its origins in the well-known game that normally goes by the name of pachinko. Pachinko involves a vertical playing field that has a glass cover plate and a solid back wall. A plurality of deflection pins or pegs extend at right angles from the back wall to the glass cover plate. A disk, coin, token, ball or other scoring device is dropped through a slot at the top of the playing surface and bounces back and forth between the deflection pins as it falls toward the bottom of the playing surface. Along the bottom of the playing surface are a plurality of scoring slots or capture gates. The player scores points corresponding to the value assigned to the particular scoring slot or capture gate in which the falling disk ultimately comes to rest.
A typical version of pachinko is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 524,475 (Wheeland), which patent was granted in 1894. This patent in fact is directed at an improvement to the game of pachinko in which the deflection pins or pegs are made of a spring material to give the falling disk an even more random travel path. Another example of a pachinko game is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,947,772 (Harris).
Pachinko has proven difficult to adapt to a casino gaming environment. Gaming regulators require any gaming device to result in a random determination of winning and losing events. In a pachinko game, the final destination of the falling disk is determined by the location of the deflection pins. Even if the deflection pins are positioned in such a manner to make the disk fall as randomly as possible, the falling disk will still more often fall toward the middle of the scoring area than toward the outer ends.
There are also casino games that use each coin put in by the player as the object that creates the random event that determines whether the player receives a payout for his wager. Representative of these types of games is the game disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,496,160 to Wichinsky et al.
The Wichinsky patent is a flipper-type game in which a coin, such as a quarter, is inserted by the player into the machine and projected into the playing field. If the coin falls through one of a plurality of baskets, then the player earns a payout. The coin subsequently comes to rest on one of an upper shelf or a lower shelf. Each shelf has associated therewith a series of pusher bars that push the coins toward the edge of the shelf. During the play of the game, one or more coins will eventually fall over the end of the lower shelf and the player will win those coins.
One drawback to the Wichinsky game is that the house's portion of the game is collected by coins falling over the lower shelf at the outer edges of the lower shelf. The house will not know exactly what it is going to win from day to day because it all depends on how many coins happen to fall over the outer edges of the lower shelf. The player can also become disappointed because, after watching the pusher bars push one or more coins over the edge of the lower shelf, the player will only receive those coins that fall over the center area of the lower shelf.
Another casino game that utilizes a pachinko-type format is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,879 (Parker et al.). Falling disks passing through scoring slots or capture gates determine the winning combination. If the falling disks form a winning combination, the player wins a predetermined multiple of his wager.